Monthly Archives: May 2013

The beautiful soaproot are in season!

For most of the year, soaproot (Chlorogalum pomeridianum) is simply an innocuous tuft of leaves growing from the ground. But at this time of year, it shoots a long stalk of starry white flowers. Best of all, these blooms only open in the late afternoon and evening–for most of the day, you can walk past them without even noticing the wiry gray stalks. When I do see them it feels like a special treat.

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It’s worth it to try to find a field where soaproot is in bloom–en masse these are spectacular. Because the stems are so tall and yet nearly invisible, the flowers seem to hover in the air like real stars.

Also known as amole, star lily, soap lily, or soap plant, it contains saponins and was traditionally used as its name suggests. The crushed bulb foams up nicely and was used to wash hair, bodies and anything else. The plant was also used in fishing, since saponins are toxic to ichtyoids. The crushed bulb would be tossed into a stream, and soon the hapless fish could be scooped out!

Coastal tidy tips (Layia platyglossa) are eye-catching, with their buttery yellow centers and white petal tips. But keep a sharp eye out because there are two other and very similar looking species in Marin. You can tell this one apart because the plant is glandular, has fragrance, and the hairs on the stems rise out of dark spots.

These ones were seen blooming on the bluffs of Steep Ravine

Elegantly colored clusters of flowers sprout from a prickly head of leaves. This is false babystars (Leptosiphon androsaceus), one of the many similar-looking species in the area. I tend to call them all “linanthus”, the groups former scientific name which doubles as a common name for some species.

False babystars grow in shallow and serpentine soils and is particularly fond of rocky canyonsides. Blooms can be lavender, pink, or white–but most commonly are lavender petals with a purple throat, as shown here. The long threadlike stalk between the leaves and the flower is actually part of the blossom itself–the technical term for this flower shape is “salverform.”

The easiest way to tell false babystars apart from its closest lookalike, L. parviflorus, or variable linanthus, is because the foliage is hairy but not glandular. Also the petals lobes (the part that look like petals, not the skinny tube below) are somewhat larger, usually greater than 8 mm.